Agricultural colonies; Poor -- Great Britain; Salvation Army; Unemployed -- Great Britain
For instance, take the temptation which comes through the natural
appetite, hunger. Here is a man who has been at a religious meeting,
or received some good advice, or, perhaps, just come out of prison,
with the memories of the hardships he has suffered fresh upon him, or
the advice of the chaplain ringing in his ears. He has made up his
mind to steal no more, but he has no means of earning a livelihood.
He becomes hungry. What is he to do? A loaf of bread tempts him, or,
more likely, a gold chain which he can turn into bread. An inward
struggle commences, he tries to stick to his bargain, but the hunger
goes on gnawing within, and it may be there is a wife and children
hungry as well as himself; so he yields to the temptation, takes the
chain, and in turn the policeman takes him.
Now this man does not want to do wrong, and still less does he want to
go to prison. In a sincere, dreamy way he desires to be good,
and if the path were easier for him he would probably walk in it.
Again, there is the appetite for drink. That man has no thought of
sinning when he takes his first glass. Much less does he want to get
drunk. He may have still a vivid recollection of the unpleasant
consequences that followed his last spree, but the craving is on him;
the public-house is there handy; his companions press him; he yields,
and falls, and, perhaps, falls to rise no more.
We might amplify, but our Scheme proposes to take the poor slave right
away from the public-houses, the drink, and the companions that allure
him to it, and therefore we think the chances of reformation in him are
far greater.
Then think of the great boon this Scheme will be to the children,
bringing them out of the slums, wretched hovels, and filthy surroundings
in which they are being reared for lives of abomination of every
description, into the fields, amongst the green trees and cottage homes,
where they can grow up with a chance of saving both body and soul.
Think again of the change this Scheme will make for these poor
creatures from the depressing, demoralising surroundings, of the
unsightly, filthy quarters in which they are huddled together, to the
pure air and sights and sounds of the country. There is much talk
about the beneficial influence of pictures, music and literature upon
the multitudes. Money, like water, is being poured forth to supply
such attractions in Museums, People's Palaces, and the like, for the
edification and amelioration of the social condition of the masses.
But "God made the country, man made the town," and if we take the
people to the pictures of divine manufacture, that must be the superior
plan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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